Rose sat at the very last table in the back of the library, glaring at her potions book. Was it really a surprise anymore? Of course he's late.
Since class time in potions was reserved for, well, class time, Rose and Scorpius had agreed to meet up in the library to do their research. Fortunately, Rose being the only one in the library gave her some much needed peace and quiet. Things have been much more hectic than usual because of the upcoming quidditch game- Slytherin vs Gryffindor. The two teams were equally undefeated and this game was a chance for them to settle the dispute on who was better. Many Ravenclaws put money on Slytherin winning, while Hufflepuffs sided with Gryffindor. Truth be told, she didn't mind the rise in excitement throughout the school for the game (something she never understood). It was her cousins that were driving her insane. About half of the Weasley-Potters at the school were on the Gryffindor quidditch team, which meant that chaos would only rise as game day grew closer.
Rose sighed and buried her head in the newest Charms book her mother had gotten her for Christmas.
The library doors flew open with a thud, and there he was. His hair was windswept and he looked slightly out of breath, panting just a little bit. He was dressed in his dark green quidditch robes with his broom hanging from one hand. He had immediately spotted her prominent red hair and jogged towards her.
"You're..." She looked down at her watch. "Twenty minutes late. Care to explain yourself?" It was quite self-explanatory but Rose didn't care. He looked down at himself, then back at her, throwing his hands out.
"What do you think, genius?"
She huffed in frustration. "I think you should've told me you would have practice around this time so I wouldn't have to sit here like an idiot."
"Oh Rosie, you do that by yourself." He grinned and pinched her cheeks just like Grandma Molly does. Uncontrollably, her face grew red and she slapped his hands away.
"Can we just hurry up and do the assignment. I don't have time for your games Malfoy." She flipped the pages of her book until she found the chapter about Wolfsbane.
"Okay, so it says here that the main and most important ingredient is 'aconite', a species of Aconitum. It is highly toxic and must be used with caution. Along with that, you'll need black quicksilver, a giant moonwort, and myrrh." She stopped and looked up. He was staring directly at her, with an unreadable expression. Did he even listen to a word she said?
"What are you doing? Write that down." She passed him her quill. "We need to figure out how to acquire these. I heard Professor Longbottom could help."
"Mmhum." He started to jot stuff down, but something told Rose that he was no longer writing the ingredients. By the way he quickly moved his wrist, she could tell he was writing down his own words, however, when she reached up to look at it, he moved his hand so that it was invisible.
"What are you writing? Let me see." She reached over, but he pulled away.
"No. Mind your own business, Weasley." He laughed as she attempted to, once again, grab his paper. Well it must be something interesting if he's being this protective.
She gasped. "Uh- my own business? This is my business! What did you put on our paper?"
"Nothing." He shrugged it off, but the mischief smile on his face said otherwise. As time passed, Rose continued to read out information from the book while Scorpius copied it down for future reference. She was in mid-sentence when he suddenly pushed his chair back and started to pack up his stuff. Looking up at the clock towards her, she realized it was past ten.
"I'm going to go take a shower then I'll meet you up in the corridors outside of the dining hall."
She nodded her head, and stood up to do the same. Scorpius walked towards the doors, turned back and flashed her a brief smile before leaving. She tried to ignore the feeling in her stomach when he did so. What was that? Surely he couldn't have been looking at me. She looked around the room and found that the only other person there was Mrs. Tursule, the old, grumpy librarian.
~~~
"Have you two ever had a proper conversation?"
It was the next day and Rose had just finished complaining to Dom about Malfoy's newest trick he played on her. Apparently, the paper Rose was so suspicious about ended up being a love letter. Yes, you heard that correctly, a love letter. To professor Deemsle. Scorpius thought it would have been hilarious to write a 'confession of her love', in Rose's point of view. Needless to say, Rose had a very awkward explanation due after class. She made a mental note not to ever give Malfoy a quill and paper.
"No, and I don't plan on it anytime soon."
"He doesn't seem like that bad of a guy. He's pretty funny, and smart and- you know you two could actually get along if you tried." Dom thought about it for a while. The thing about Dom, was that she was a hopeless romantic. And if she got the chance- she would play matchmaker until she got her way. Something clicked and Dom had just figured out her newest mission: get rid of Jacob and get Rose and Scorpius together. Granted, she didn't know much about Scorpius but they have never gotten off the wrong hand. Oh, and anybody would be better for Rose other than Jacob. Yes, she may have still been a little salty about him insulting her fashion but that's besides the point.
Rose scoffed. "Get along? He lives to terrorize me."
They walked into their next class, herbology. The classroom had just begun to fill up with students.
"Good afternoon class."
"Good afternoon, Professor." The class babbled.
"Today, we will be continuing our lesson from where we left off, on the Fanged Geranium. Now can someone please refresh the class on what exactly this particular plant is?" He scanned the room and sighed when a hand that belonged to a certain redhead shot up. Now, he didn't mind that Rose knew the answer, it was just that only Rose knew the answer. As usual, nobody bothered to participate other than her.
"Yes, Miss. Weasley."
"The Fanged Geranium is a rose that could take the color of blue or red. It is very poisonous and it has sharp, razor-like teeth. We will spend the next three weeks studying them and will be quizzed on them for our O.W.Ls. " The class rolled their eyes at her answer.
"Very good! Five points for Gryffindor. Now could anyone else tell me what the dangers of this plant?" He ignored Rose's hand and scanned the room.
"They will bite you if they are not taken care of properly. If you do happen to be bitten, you may experience nausea, lightheadedness, and severe pain throughout your whole body, regardless of the bite spot." Scorpius said lazily from the back of the classroom.
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, but please raise your hand next time. Now, if everybody could gather around, I will show you how they appear."
Everybody assembled around the main table, awing at the green and red rose with long, razor like teeth. Rose could feel the two Slytherin boys standing behind her.
"Amazing, right class? She really is a beauty..."
They all took notes and examined the plant while Professor Longbottom spoke. When class ended, Rose's legs were aching from standing still for so long and she longed to be able to sit down. Without thinking, she spun around, completely forgetting about the boy standing behind her and crashed straight into his chest.
"If you wanted to feel me so bad you could have just asked, Weasley." He smirked down at her, clearly enjoying her surprise. Thankfully, most of the students have already left, so the only ones who saw her were Dom, Albus and well, Malfoy. Though, this probably wasn't the best audience considering Dom had just found her newest ship.
"Oh sod off Malfoy. As if anybody would want to even look at you."
"Oh please, don't act like you haven't been ogling me since the beginning of class."
Rose spluttered. "Ogling? I'm afraid you have me mistaken for the giant squid. I heard she fancies you."
"Considering that she doesn't like anybody, I'm taking that as a compliment. Plus, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, really. I have loads of girls all over me, it's nothing new." His smirk grew as she squinted her eyes at him.
"I can guarantee you, I will never be one of your little fangirls." She shivered in disgust as if just the thought was grueling enough.
"Yeah, yeah keep lying to yourself, Rosie."
While Rose and Scorpius went at it once again, Al and Dom gave each other an amused side glance.
"Merlin, could they be anymore obvious?" Al whispered to Dom.
"Pretty ironic how the two smartest students in Hogwarts can't figure this one out."
Rose was so busy bickering with him that she forgot to back up after bumping into him. She was unaware her close proximity to him until Albus decided to step in. He cleared his throat and eyed the distance between them. As if she couldn't get any more red (curse these Weasley genes!), Rose blushed even more.
"Hey keep doing that, your face is almost as red as your hair!" Malfoy snickered and Al smacked the back of his head.
"Come on Scorp, we're going to be late for charms."
Later that day, Rose remembered that she needed to meet Malfoy in the library for their daily potions research. That prick is probably going to be late again. She decided to wait a good fifteen minutes before heading to the library. To her surprise, he was already there, sitting in the usual spot. He didn't notice her yet and Rose decided to take advantage of this. As quietly as she could, she creeped around the bookshelves and jumped out.
"BO- OW!"
Before she could finish her 'boo', Scorpius (who had been testing how far he could tip back in his chair) fell back, right on top of her.
"What was that for?" He laughed at her partially successful attempt to frighten him. Getting crushed by him and his chair wasn't part of the plan. He reached his hand out but Rose ignored it with a huff.
"I didn't think you'd be such a scaredy-cat."
"I'm not a scaredy cat. You just caught me off guard." He grunted defensively.
"Mmm, no. I think you were scared." She felt very smug about this whole situation. Throughout their five years at Hogwarts, Scorpius took every chance he got to trip or push her. Anything that resulted with her on the floor with scattered books was good enough for him. How does it feel now?
"It feels just fine, thanks for asking." He sneered.
Wait, did she just say that out loud?
"Since we finished our research, we better start brewing it now. We only have a week left."
"I doubt Tursule would let us brew it here. Should we do it outside?"
Shrugging, she followed him outside. First, they stopped at Professor Longbottom's classroom to pick up the ingredients, then settled down near the Great Lake.
"Reckon she'll blow me a kiss?" Scorpius asked as he nodded towards the giant squid.
"Oh please, she wouldn't give you the time of day." She snickered.
"Yeah? I thought you said she had a crush on me?" He smiled down at her before tossing his bag on the floor.
"Must have been a rumor." She couldn't help smiling when he scoffed and gently pushed her with his shoulders.
They followed the directions, careful not to mess up. One mistake could be fatal. To her surprise, it only took them thirty minutes to mix in all the ingredients without it blowing up into fog. Now all they needed to do was mix it three times a day, ten minutes apart until it had the consistency of honey.
"Wow, we actually did it." Rose didn't think this would really work. She was sure Scorpius would find a way to ruin it and bring down her grade. He probably would have if it didn't affect his.
"Of course we did. Did you forget you were working with the Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy? Potions prodigy?"
The pinkish purple sky was just barely lit by the glowing rays of sunlight. Rose stood up and brushed the grass off her. "Hyperion?" She snorted.
"Yes, Hyperion. You think that's funny, yeah?" He looked at her half amused, half annoyed.
She giggled when he said it again. "Why is your name so weird. Your parents couldn't have come up with a normal name?" She said his full name again and pursed her lips to hide her laughter.
"Whatever. At least my name is unique. You're named after a flower." He remarked. The two began to argue about whose name was stupider as they walked back into the castle. Laughing and shoving each other, Rose didn't realize what good of a time she was having. That was, until Jacob grabbed her shoulder and harshly pulled her back.
"Rose. You were supposed to meet me in the library." He crossed his arms and glared at Malfoy before looking back at her.
"Right! Oh I totally forgot. I mean we had this potions project and-"
"Why are you with him?" He sneered. Malfoy just smirked at him, enjoying the sense befolding before him.
"If you would've let me continue, you would know why. We have a potions project due soon and needed to finish brewing it."
"You two could have done it in the library." Jacob didn't believe a word coming out of her mouth.
"It's wolfsbane. If anything were to mess up, it would have exploded into a could of toxic smoke. And you want us to brew it in a closed room full of first years?" Rose was starting to feel fed up with him.
"Yeah, forget it. Just come with me." He gave Malfoy one last glare before pulling Rose by her wrist.
Rose struggled to get out of his tight grip. "Let go of me."
A cold hand suddenly gripped her wrist and pulled her back in one swift movement. She flew back into a hard, lean chest.
"She said let go." Malfoy said in a cold, hard voice. Jacob looked between Rose and Scorpius, opened his mouth, then decided better.
"I'll see you at dinner Rose?"
Rose sighed. She was tired and her legs were aching. She didn't have time for this. "Yeah."
Jacob looked at Scorpius one last time before turning around and leaving.
Rose looked down at her gripped wrist and cleared her throat. Scorpius immediately let go as if her skin just burnt him. Without saying anything, he turned around and stalked away.
Rose stood there for a second longer, confused and tired. Sighing, she too, walked away.
By dinner time, Rose caught Dom up on everything.
"Wait, so he got that mad at you for doing your project in a different place? Talk about possessive."
"He was probably just having a bad day. It happens to us all." Rose said as she shoved a piece of turkey into her mouth.
"Okay one, slow down. That poor turkey is already dead; he's not going anywhere. And two, I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling about Jacob."
Before Rose could defend him, the man himself came up to the red and gold table.
"Hey Rose...could I talk to you?" He kept his voice low and glanced warily at the blonde girl glaring.
"Sure." They walked out of the dining room.
"Look, I'm sorry. I was being completely unreasonable. I was just having a bad day and-"
"It's alright. I'm sorry too, I was just really tired and hungry."
After apologizing, Jacob gave her a peak on the lips and led her back into the dining hall. Her eyes locked with a pair of grey ones sitting in the crowd of green. He wore an unreadable expression and immediately broke eye contact.
What was that about?
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Hey guys! This chapter took a long time to write but here it is! I hope you're starting to like Dom, she's kinda my favorite character. Anyways, thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment what you thought of this chapter, vote, and follow =)